today president obama took one more opportunity to tell congress not to let that happen. >> part of the reason that i wanted to speak to all of you here today is to make sure that we emphasize to have congress and that members of both parties understand that all across america this is a pressing concern on people's minds. >> jared bernstein is an msnbc contributor and former chief economic adviser to vice president joe biden. jared, thank you for being here. >> thank you for inviting me, jonathan. >> take us through what happens if we do, indeed, go over the cliff tonight. >> well, if we go over the cliff and there isn't a new plan in the offing that could pass very quickly, and that's actually quite an if right now because they have been making some progress, then, you know, some bad stuff could happen when financial markets reopen. they would take a spike down because they have largely priced in a solution. a very serious problem, millions of people would face what's called a hard cutoff of their unemployment benefits. if you're on extended unemployment insurance, meaning you're a lon